Today I’m happy to announce that enrollment in online courses at The Automation School is now open!
While The Automation School website had previously hosted a couple of short courses, most of the links on the site lead to non-interactive On-Demand or DVD courses.
However, after weeks of behind the scenes work several courses are now available to take right on TheAutomationSchool.com.
And with the opening of online enrollment at TheAutomationSchool.com, I’m also reaching out to anyone who might be interested in becoming an instructor at The Automation School.
So if you (or someone you know) would be more interested in publishing a course at The Automation School, contact me using the form at TheAutomationSchool.com/question.
Advantages of Online Courses
Now you may be asking yourself, “what are the advantages to taking online courses versus Streaming Video or DVD?”
Well, the first and probably biggest advantage is “instructor support.”
At TheAutomationSchool.com each and every lesson has its very own Q & A discussion area where students can directly post questions to instructor.
This not only allows for direct interaction between each student and the instructoron a per lesson basis, but also allows all students to benefit from the instructor’s answers to previously asked questions.
The next benefit would be the “interactive quizzes” which test and score the student’s knowledge as they progress through the course.
By taking quizzes with immediate scoring, students get direct feedback on whether or not they understood the information presented in the preceding lessons.
A third benefit is that students who complete all the lessons and pass all the quizzes get immediate access to a personalized “course completion certificate” PDF they can save and print.
And the final benefit is that every student is also enrolled in a private “course discussion forum” where they can discuss the course and related topics with other students enrolled in the same course.
Bundles and Offline Access
Even though there are many benefits to enrolling in the course online, it’s also true that many still want to take the course with them when they are “offline.”
For those students I offer two options:
The first is a Vimeo bundle, which on many iOS and Android devices allow the student to download the course lessons for viewing offline via the free Vimeo Mobile App.
However, before choosing this option we recommend students download and test the free Vimeo app to be sure it has the “watch later” offline download feature available on their device.
The second option is for courses that were already available on DVD.
These courses are still available to be purchased on DVD, but now can also be purchase as part of a “complete bundle” at a substantial discount.
These “complete” bundles include online enrolment, a Vimeo copy of the course lessons, and the DVD set with free USPS shipping in the continental USA (shipping to other countries available upon request.)
Support for DVD Only Customers?
I know some customers will still choose to purchase just the DVD edition of a course, however I didn’t want those customers not to have a means of getting support when they watched the course.
With that in mind, TheAutomationSchool.com now enrolls every customer who purchases a DVD Course into a private “DVD Course Support Forum” so they have not only the ability to ask the insutructor questions, but also have access to the instructor’s answers to other student’s questions.
So if you know anyone looking for an affordable PLC or HMI training course, please pass on a link to TheAutomationSchool.com so they can take advantage of our courses!
And if you or someone you know would like to publish your own course on TheAutomationSchool.com, feel free to contact me directly using the form at TheAutomationSchool.com/question.
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